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The Minority Bloc unanimously decided to boycott the budget briefings and hearings starting today

Press Statements
  • Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
  • Office of the Minority Leader
  • 01 August 2011
  • Mobile No. 09189120137/09166406737

  

        The Minority Bloc in the House of Representatives unanimously decided to boycott the budget briefings and hearings starting today in protest of the discrimination against opposition members in the release of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

         The precursor of the PDAF, the Countrywide Development Fund (CDF), was declared valid and constitutional by the Supreme Court which called the CDF as the “great equalizer” because congressional districts receive the same amounts irrespective of the political affiliations of the incumbents.

         “PDAF allocations are entitlements of constituents and not of individual legislators,” Lagman explained.

         Out of the 34 members of the Minority, 14 have not received any releases for their respective districts, 18 have incomplete releases and only two got their districts’ full allocation for the first half of 2011.

         Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman scored the uneven treatment of Minority members as a divide-and-rule strategy which attempts to drive a wedge within the ranks of the opposition.

         Lagman said that “it is pointless for Minority members to participate in the budget briefings and hearings because after the General Appropriations Act is enacted, allocations are impounded and immobilized.”

        He also added that “no amount of relevant inputs coming from the Minority is considered meaningful once the ascendant Majority decides to approve the budget in full at the behest of the President.”

         Rep. Marc Douglas Cagas, a member of the Nationalista Party who belongs to the Minority, was the only one who attended the briefings of the Development Budget Coordinating Committee (DBCC) because he was not aware of the Minority’s earlier decision.